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Joseph Dunsmoor

  • Associate Professor
  • Neuroscience

Recruiting Students 26-27 Academic Year

Profile image of Joseph Dunsmoor
joseph.dunsmoor@austin.utexas.edu
Dell Medical School Profile

Biography

Dr. Joseph Dunsmoor is an Associate Professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the University of Texas at Austin. Joseph received his PhD in Psychology & Neuroscience from Duke University in 2012 and completed a postdoc at New York University in 2017.

Research

Research in Dr. Dunsmoor’s lab centers on how emotion and cognition interact to determine how we learn about and remember important events. This research integrates a number of psychological and neuroscience disciplines, including Pavlovian conditioning, categorization, decision making, and episodic memory and incorporates fMRI, psychophysiology, and immersive virtual reality tools. Some research questions include (1) on what basis do we generalize from emotional experiences; (2) how do emotional experiences shape our memory; and (3) how do we overcome (or regulate) the unwanted psychological and physiological effects of negative experiences? Dr. Dunsmoor’s lab seeks to bridge research from healthy adults to patients characterized by the inability to regulate fear and anxiety using translational cognitive neuroscience approaches.

Research Areas

  • Neuroscience
  • Learning and Memory

Fields of Interest

  • Computational
  • Behavior
  • Human brain imaging
  • Cognition/Sensory Systems
  • Learning/Memory/Plasticity
  • Neurological Disease/Addiction

Centers and Institutes

  • Center for Learning and Memory

Education

  • Ph.D. Duke University

Publications

  • Representative publications from the last few years

    1. Cooper SE, Keller NE, Bauer EA, Lambert SR, Hennings AC, Azar AA, Bibb SA, Nemeroff CB, Cisler JM, Lewis-Peacock JA, & Dunsmoor JE (2026). Augmenting extinction with counterconditioning strengthens and sustains neural safety representations in PTSD. Translational Psychiatry.
    2. Laing PAF & Hennings AC, Cooper SE, & Dunsmoor JE (2026). Emotional learning selectively distorts the temporal organization of memory: A quantitative analysis. Cognition.
    3. Cooper SE, Hennings AC, Bibb S, Lewis-Peacock J, & Dunsmoor JE (2024). Semantic structures facilitate threat memory integration throughout the medial temporal lobe and medial prefrontal cortex. Current Biology, 34, 3522-3536.
    4. Cisler JM, Dunsmoor JE, Fonzo GA, & Nemeroff CB (2024). Latent-state and model-based learning in PTSD. Trends in Neurosciences, 47, 150-162.
    5. Hennings AC, McClay M, Drew M, Lewis-Peacock JA, & Dunsmoor JE (2022). Neural reinstatement reveals divided organization of fear and extinction memory in the human brain. Current Biology, 32, 304-312.